Rose Byrne on Gloria Steinem, the woman who fought feminism and her political drama Mrs America

Rose Byrne stars as Gloria Steinem in Mrs America, streaming on Neon and Soho. Photo: Sky

One of the harshest and most important battles in the fight for feminism occurred in America in the 70s. But in what can be described only as a cruel twist, the villain in this fight that was so bitter and ferocious that it reshaped America's political landscape forever was not "The Man". No.

Instead, it was a woman named Phyllis Schlafly, an ultra-conservative right-wing figure who opposed not just abortion and equal rights but the very notion of feminism itself.

She was such a powerful, effective and single-minded opponent that she has been credited with not only defeating the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which as the name suggests guaranteed equal rights for all, but also destroying the momentum of the women's right movement altogether by reframing the ERA into a war among women over gender roles.

Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly in Mrs America, streaming on Neon and Soho. Photo: Sky

"She's really a female anti-hero," Rose Byrne says of Schlafly, the person her new political drama, Mrs America, revolves around. "Often female anti-heroes are really just men; they're written by men, they just happen to be women. This is truly a female anti-hero on television. It's a pretty incredible archetype that hasn't been shown before on television to this detail and extent."

Okay, but the thing is people end up idolising anti-heroes, I say. People tend to like the murderous Walter Whites, Tony Sopranos and Jokers.

"She's not murdering people or anything but she's definitely in that lexicon," Byrne says. "But I hope people empathise with her. It's only through empathy that you can ever understand someone else's perspective. Even if you really disagree with them."

Even with the always remarkable Cate Blanchett in the role, you won't find much agreeable in the staunchly ultra-conservative "values" Schlafly was fighting for. However, as Mrs America shows, the people opposing her maddening world view didn't fare much better under the harsh glare of the public spotlight. None more so than Byrne's character, Gloria Steinem, the American spokeswoman and figurehead of the feminist movement in the 70s and 80s.

Rose Byrne says Gloria Steinem's hair and glasses were like a mask. Photo: Sky

"I did get a slight panic about playing her, I thought I can't possibly do that'," Byrne laughs. "I managed to figure it out. It was an opportunity to do something scary, and it was scary to do, but the project itself was so fascinating. I loved the tapestry of it. It was such a broad, ambitious, yet very specific piece about this time in history that was largely forgotten. It's extraordinary this power these women had."

In preparation for the role, Byrne says it was "terrifying" to learn how much the public projected on to Steinem.

"Trying to rediscover her as just a person and a character with flaws, and hopes and everything that makes up being a human being was a challenge," she admits. "There's so much information about her already; books and articles . . . where do you begin? Where does one begin with somebody that well-known? Bio-pics are hard. They're really hard. And they're not often very successful because they put someone on a pedestal or it's a puff piece."

To avoid falling into caricature she says she deep-dived into the details.

"I wanted them all to be complicated as people and show all the flaws as well as the strengths. If someone is married to a movement like this, whether it's Gloria Steinem or Phyllis Schlafly or Martin Luther King jnr, or whoever, the Queen, whoever you're playing, what's the cost of that? What is that cost on someone's life? Is it that they're tired all the time? Is it that their relationship's in trouble, or they suffer from depression or insomnia or whatever the thing is. What is the cost? Because there has to be when you devote your life to something like this. That was always interesting to me."

Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem and Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan in Mrs America, streaming on Neon and Soho. Photo: Sky

All of her homework presents itself in her startling performance, which is already gathering widespread acclaim, for its nuance. For example, she says she pitched scenes where Steinem was shown sleeping in odd places because she'd read multiple accounts of her ability to fall asleep anywhere.

Another, simpler example is her walk; Steinem moved gracefully and with poise because she'd been a dancer, Byrne says, before explaining the rationale behind her signature and iconic look.

"The hair and the glasses were very put together because they were almost a mask, like she was hiding," Byrne reveals. "She was a reluctant face of the movement initially, until she embraced it."

They are fantastic glasses, I say.

"Yeah! They're cool, right?"

What's not cool, however, is the feeling you get watching the show as you realise that these fights that started way back in the 70s are still being fought over today.

"It's surreal," Byrne says, sighing. "We'd often be on set chatting about the scene or the politics that day and saying, 'Why are we still talking about the same thing?'. Can you imagine being a woman of a certain age and saying, 'I'm still talking about not getting fired because I'm pregnant or getting equal pay or being allowed to have control over my reproductive system'. Imagine being Gloria Steinem and going, 'Wow, we're still trying to get the ERA ratified'."

How does that make you feel, I ask. Angry?

"For me it does, of course," Byrne answers. "There's a healthy amount of aggression and frustration there. Absolutely. Absolutely."

LOWDOWN
Who: Rose Byrne
What: Plays feminist leader Gloria Steinem in Mrs America
When: Streaming on Neon now and screening on SoHo2 from Sunday